A multi-agency operation to rescue an estimated 34 people trapped inside a big tunnel at Tapovan was carried out overnight after a glacier burst-triggered deluge killed 10 people in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district while over 140 are missing, officials said on Monday.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the Centre had sent multiple advance warnings to the Kerala government about possible floods and landslides in the state, starting as early as July 23, and nine National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams were rushed to the state the same day.
Two more bodies have been located under the debris at the site of a giant hoarding collapse in Mumbai as the search and rescue operation continued more than 40 hours after the incident, officials said on Wednesday.
The over a century-old bridge, which had reopened five days ago after extensive repairs and renovation, was crammed with people when it collapsed around 6.30 pm on Sunday.
The body of an eight-year-old boy who had fallen into a stormwater drain in Guwahati on Thursday, was recovered about 4 km downstream in Rajgarh area, police said.
Here's a glimpse of how the massive rescue operation was carried out by the agencies.
A fire broke out at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India, on Sunday, engulfing 18 tents in Sector 19. The blaze, which started around 4 pm, was caused by an LPG cylinder explosion. No casualties were reported, and the fire was brought under control within an hour. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was in Prayagraj to review preparations ahead of Mauni Amawasya, visited the site and instructed authorities to take measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Swollen water bodies changed their course and flowed through inhabited areas, resulting in more destruction.
Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Friday claimed that the state has achieved its 'Zero Casualty Mission' as there has been no report regarding any loss of human life or injury in the severe cyclonic storm Dana which made landfall in the coast on Thursday night.
As Odisha and West Bengal are bracing for a severe cyclonic storm, governments of both states started evacuating people and while deciding to close educational institutions in vulnerable areas.
Ravi, son of a road construction worker, fell into the borewell on Wednesday afternoon while playing near Thorandale village, 70 km from Pune.
The NDRF chief said initial reports suggested that due to the impact of the cyclone, buildings and some communication towers were destroyed.
She said that the borewell surrounding was completely locked when the rescue teams arrived and added that the police are looking into the matter.
The building, which housed godowns on the ground and first floors and four families on the top floor, collapsed at 1.45 pm on Saturday at Wardhaman Compound in Valpada of Mankoli area.
An NDRF personnel went through the passage, pushing a wheeled stretcher tied to a rope at the end of the tunnel and was pulled back up after completing the stretch.
The administration is geared up for more showers as the India meteorological department has warned of heavy to very heavy rains with isolated extremely heavy rains in several districts of the state till Thursday morning.
The Wayanad district authorities said people from residential areas in the affected places were being shifted to safer locations.
As the low-pressure area in the south-eastern Arabian Sea intensified into a severe depression on Friday, heavy rains lashed many parts of Kerala and huge tidal waves started hitting low-lying coastal areas.
India on Tuesday pressed six more teams of National Disaster Response Force personnel into its relief and rescue operations in Nepal.
The situation in rain-battered Gujarat improved slightly on Thursday as the rainfall activity subsided, but Vadodara and some other parts of the state are still reeling under a flood-like situation due to overflowing rivers while the authorities continue the rescue and relief operations.
More than 170 personnel have been tested till now after they returned to their base in Cuttack, Odisha, from the cyclone-affected West Bengal.
Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were roped in to rescue hundreds of stranded people, they said.
Officials said around 1,300 pilgrims are stranded in Kedarnath, Bhimbali and Gaurikund, and are safe.
With their near and dear ones gone and staring at an uncertain future, survivors recount their most traumatic experience ever that unfolded in the wee hours of July 30.
National Disaster Response Force teams rescued more than 50 passengers including 16 badly trapped from the mangled bogies of Patna-Indore Express which derailed in Kanpur during the wee hours on Sunday.
Rescue operations continued through Tuesday and Wednesday in Joshimath, Rudraprayag, Dehradun, Rishikesh, Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand and in Shimla, Chamoli, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, for those trapped by landslides.
Feroze Qureshi and Monu Kumar, experts in the rat-hole mining technique, were the first to meet the 41 labourers rescued from the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand after they cleared the last bit of the rubble inside the structure.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday termed as 'baseless', Union Home Minister Amit Shah's claim that the state government did not heed the Centre's warning regarding a possible natural calamity in Wayanad due to heavy rains.
Students held a protest over the deaths of the civil services aspirants, raising slogans against authorities.
It was a highly emotional moment, with those gathered outside shouting slogans and the workers themselves welcomed by everyone present, as these photographs show.
Some people broke down at the shock of seeing the cold and injured bodies of their loved ones, while others heaved a sigh of relief that their kin were not among the deceased.
A total of 113 teams were deployed by the federal contingency force in the two states and adjoining areas for launching relief and rescue in the wake of the cyclone.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu reviewed the weather situation with senior officials and asked them to incorporate technologies such as drones to assess the deluge and accordingly plan the relief works.
While rain intensity reduced on Tuesday compared to a day ago, affecting mainly districts in the Saurashtra region, administration carried out rescue and relief operations on a large scale, shifting thousands of people to shelters.
Babu after reaching there, slipped and fell and got trapped between rocks on the mountain face
The death toll in the landslide at Irshalwadi hamlet in Maharashtra's Raigad district mounted to 27 on Saturday with the recovery of five more bodies from the debris on the third day of the search and rescue operation, a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) official said.
Nine National Disaster Response Force teams were deployed for rescue operations following one of the worst railway disasters in India that killed at least 278 people and injured more than 900. According to official data, the force rescued 44 victims and retrieved 121 bodies from the spot.
As many as 190 people have died and over 200 injured in the massive landslides that hit Wayanad district two days ago, with the numbers expected to increase even more as rescuers unearth debris, the district administration said on Thursday.
Widespread rains lashed parts of Tamil Nadu on Thursday, prompting authorities to declare a holiday for schools in Chennai and many other districts.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday issued a warning of significant rainfall in Kerala due to cyclone Fengal, currently positioned as a strong low-pressure area over northern Tamil Nadu.
